
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

Chap- - Copyright No. 

ShelChlSc 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Songs of Sea and Sail 



SONGS 0/" « « 
SEJ AND SAIL 

/ 
THOMAS FLEMING DAY 



lb 



NEW YORK AND LONDON 
THE RUDDER PUBLISHING COMPANY 

1898 



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Copyright i8g8 

By Thomas Fleming Day 

All /lights Reserved 




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Press of 

Thomson & Co. 

New York 



2nci CO ill 
189D- 



TO 

THOSE WHO LOVE 

THE SEA 

AND ITS SHIPS. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Mermaid's Song _____ g 

Trafalgar 13 

When - - iS 

The Forsaken Port - 19 

An Early Moonset - 24 

On the Bridge --.----25 

Missing -----_-. 30 

Making Land - -31 

At Portsmouth 35 

At Anchor -.39 

From the Cliff _______ 40 

Then and Now 42 

The Ships 43 

The Man-o'-War's Man's Yarn - - . _ 49 

A Foggy Morning 53 

Unknown 55 

The Coasters 57 

To-Day --- 62 

The Sailor of the Sail - _ . . . 63 

The Yacht _ . - 6S 

The Trade Wind's Song 69 



PAGE 

Execution Rock Light - - - - - -71 

The Cargo Boats 73 

Noontide Calm 77 

Old Buccaneer's Song - 81 

The Belfry of the Sea 85 

Phantoms -.--.___ g5 

Flotsam 98 

The Lost Ship ----_._ gg 

The Main Sheet Song ______ iqi 

The Landfall .-.._.. 103 
The Clipper -------- 104 

The Constitution ------ 105 

The Tartar 107 

Warning --------no 

In September - - - - - - - -in 

The Homeward Bounder's Song - - - 113 

The Spell of the Sea - 115 

Days of Oak 117 

Long, Long Ago ------- ng 

Wind Happy Ships 122 

The Quest 123 



THE MERMAID'S SONG. 



Oh, what comes flowing over the sea 
In the hush of the evening's cool? 

It is a mermaid singing to me 
As she sits in a silver pool. 

As she sits in a silver pool and sings 
Of the world I never shall see, 
Where the dulse-weed clings, 
And the star-fish rings 

The red anemone; 
The world which lies 
Where human eyes 

Are never allowed to see 
The gold and gems 
And fluted stems 

Of the crimson coral tree — 

Is that what she sings to me ? 
9 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

She is haunting and holding my heart with a 

strain, 
Where joy lies asleep in the shadow of pain; 

And the world that is under the sea 
Is spreading its pleasures and treasures to gain 

The love that lies dormant in me — 

The love that I bear for the sea, 

For the secret and sorrowful sea; 
Is luring my feet from the gray land again 
And filling my soul with the scent of the main, 

The sound and the scent of the sea; 
And the speech of the siren is spoken in vain, 

For that mermaid is singing to me 

Of the world that is under the sea; 
And the love that I bear for the ocean again, 

For the mournful and mutable sea. 

Has taken possession of me; 
My heart is enmeshed in the mystical strain 

That mermaid is singing to me 

Of the world that lies under the sea. 



lO 



THE MERMAID'S SONG, 

Ah, hark again ! In a sadder strain 

She is singing a song to me — 

A song of the unseen sea; 
She is singing of ships whose wrecks have lain 

For ages in the sea, 

In the depths of the sunless sea; 
And her voice is soft with a thought of the pain 

That song is giving to me. 
A thought that I thought forever had lain 

In the depths of the soundless sea 
Is searching my soul in that mermaid's strain 

And bringing a sorrow to me 

From the world that is under the sea. 
For I have a friend whose bones have lain 

For ages in the sea, 

(For so it seems to me), 
And her song has opened that wound again 

And brought back a sorrow to me — 

From the depths of the endless sea. 



II 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

A grief that is grieving my life again, 

A thought that I thought, forever had lain, 

And never come back to me, 
Is searching my soul in that mermaid's strain 
And bringing a sorrow to me 
From the world that lies under the sea. 

Oh, what comes flowing over the sea 
In the hush of the evening's cool? 

It is a mermaid singing to me 
As she sits in a silver pool. 



12 



TRAFALGAR, 1805. 



We hailed the morning star 

Above the Spanish shore; 

Our cannon's random roar 
Then woke black Trafalgar. 

Where our foes 
Lay in the crescent bay 
We watched the fog bank gray 
Melt silently away 

As the sun uprose. 
Then rolled the deep alarm — 
The foeman's call to arm; 
And swiftly from our van 
There pass'd from man to man, 

"They will fight." 
With hearts that beat to chase 

We caught the growing gale, 

And 'neath a press of sail 
Bore up to take our place 

On the right. 

13 



SONGS OF SB A AND SAIL, 

Nelson, our admiral then, 
Greatest of all seamen, 
We cheered to death again 
As he pass'd; 

'Round toward the land 
We tacked and stood about — 
The hills rang to our shout 
As lifted and blew out 

His last command 
From the mast. 

Then flash'd our full broadside, 
Roaring across the tide, 
As crashing side by side 

We broke their line; 
Thro' rolling clouds of smoke 
Burst in our prows of oak ; 
Their tall sides bent and broke 

Like pine. 
As died the stagger'd blast 
The sails dropt to the mast; 
That broadside was their last! 
One more to clip her wing! 
14 



TRAFALGAR. 

Quick away! 
Tigers our boarders spring, 
Cutlass to cutlass ring, 

In the fray. 
We heard no quarter call : 
A man stood every Gaul! 
Useless, their flag must fall 

That day. 

The fight thus well begun, 
We paused a breathing space; 
Each soul leapt to a face 
As Nelson in his grace 

Signaled "Well done!" 
Staying the tott'ring mast 
We rounded to the blast. 
Grappled the next that pass'd- 

A huge Spaniard. 
No room to lift the ports: 
Black gun to gun retorts — 
Lip locked to lip, 
Each man a firmer grip 

On his lanyard. 

15 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

To save this pride of Spain 

A Frenchman joined the fight; 
Then roaring in our might 
We smote him with our right 

Twice, and again. 

*'Cease ! Cease ! " our Captain cries. 
''She lies 

A silent wreck ! " 

Three times we spared that foe, 
Yet from her came the blow 
That laid our hero low 

On the deck. 

What more for me to say, 

Save thro' the fatal fray 

We marked the hours that day 

With cheers ! 
Our foes struck one by one; 
Yet when the fight was done 
We saw the misty sun 

Set thro' our tears. 
O England, strong yet free, 
The crown we bear to thee, 
i6 



TRAFALGAR. 

Laurels for victory ! 

Weave cypress in the wreath: 
For he to whom thou gave 
The keeping of the wave, 
Nelson, the true, the brave, 

Has struck his flag to death. 

Oh, men of hero race, 
In what a fitting place 

To set his conquering star! — 
Amid the battle's roar. 
Under the rolling shore 
Where rises wild and hoar 

Cape Trafalgar. 



WHEN. 



When western winds are blowing soft 

Across the Island Sound ; 
When every sail that draws aloft 

Is swollen true and round ; 
When yellow shores along the lee 

Slope upward to the sky ; 
When opal bright the land and sea 

In changeful contact lie ; 
When idle yachts at anchor swim 

Above a phantom shape ; 
When spires of canvas dot the rim 

Which curves from cape to cape ; 
When sea-weed strewn the ebbing tide 

Pours eastward to the main ; 
When clumsy coasters side by side 

Tack in and out again — 
When such a day is mine to live, 

What has the world beyond to give ? 



i8 



THE FORSAKEN PORT. 



Thro' all this perfect summer day 

The wind has blown from out the west, 

And now the sunset fires invest 
Where looms the mainland far away, 

The old town right abreast. 
The red-brown roofs and rugged spires 
Uplift and pierce the sunset fires, 

The old town right abreast. 
The ships rise up, and sail, and sail, 

Then drop beneath the distant rim — 

The crimson rim. 
We watch their topsails float and trail — 

Like bubbles 'round a goblet's brim, 
A moment there they rise and dip, 
Then break against the sky's red lip. 
Unbailed the ships go saihng by 

The old town over there; 
19 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

And yet it seems we hear a cry — 
A heart-born cry 

Of anguish and despair, 

Of hope lost in despair. 
In speechful grief the old town stands 
And beckons with its outstretched hands 
As the ships go sailing by. 
Long years ago its port was thronged 

With many a busy sail, 

With rustling sail. 
And many a heart has sighed and longed 

For that old town's cheery hail — 

Has sighed and longed for that old town's 
welcome hail. 
Oh, where are they who left thy port 

In strength of youth, in pride of love? 
Side by side with a dark consort. 

Calm seas below, blue skies above. 
They tacked and stood across the bar: 
Only the sea knows where they are — 
Only the sea! 



20 



THE FORSAKEN PORT. 

Perhaps at night the phantom ships — 

Thy lost ships — come sailing in; 
Their spectre crews with parted lips 
That utter no sound, for the spell of death 

Turns even a laugh to a grin. 

Do they wait, and list for the din 

Of the cheers and the bells to welcome them 
in — 

For the cheers and the bells to welcome 
them in? 
Do their dead hearts know hopes and fears ? 
Do they dream of the wives they 've not seen 

for years? — 
The wives and the sweethearts who watched 

them thro' tears 
Sail away, sail away, when the wind was 

south 
And the bar was blue at the harbor's mouth. 

And the gulls flew low like flakes of snow, 
And the summer wind bore the heave-yo-ho 
Of the sailors brown 
Into the town? 

21 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL, 

Are they here, the ones so dear ? 

Alas ! the lips that their lips have known, 

Alas ! the hearts that once beat to their own 
Are lying up on the hillside there, 

And the daisies and grasses have overgrown 
Their graves for many a year. 
Yon sentinel pine that watches the graves 

Where their wives and sweethearts are laid 
to rest 
The wild winter wind defies and outbraves; 

Its roots are sunk in some loved one's breast. 

Are their souls at rest ? 
Sometimes, I think, they must wander down 
here 

To watch for the ships that never will come. 
In the silence of night they throng the old pier 

To welcome the wanderers home; 
Their lustreless eyes — 

Enough of death and ghostly tales ! 
Oh, let the old town keep its vigil there, 
Watching for those who were ! 

What though the dark ship with us sails — 

22 



THE FORSAKEN PORT. 

Ah, fools, to freight our hearts with care ! 

To waste our breath in idle hails, 

To cringe and cry. 
We live for those who are, not were ! — 

We live to live, not die ! 



23 



AN EARLY MOONSET. 



Like galleon flying a picaroon, 

Along the edge the ship-shap'd moon 

Leadeth a star across the sea 

To the cloudy harbor under her lee. 

With her splendid lading of golden light 
She seems to dread the pirate Night ; 

With puffing sails and fretful oars 

She steereth and speedeth for purple shores 

She will anchor to-night beneath the fort 
Whose grim guns guard the cloudy port, 

Where sound and safe from picaroon 
Rides many an olden and golden moon. 



24 



ON THE BRIDGE. 



Eight bells ring out from the fo'c'sle head; 

With a cheery good-eve the mate comes forth, 
The second goes off to his welcome bed, 

After giving the course as west by north. 

As I stand with my chin on the dodger's ridge 
And dreamily eye our plunging craft 

There's a rattle of heels on the flying bridge 
And a gruff report that the watch is aft. 

" All right!" says the mate, with a glance below; 

" Relieve the wheel and the lookout there! " 
And then we begin, with our to and fro, 

The walk and the talk we nightly share. 

In silence at first — for our pipes are lit — 
We pace and puff, and we pause and turn, 

And it's up and down, for she rolls a bit 
When flying light with the sea astern. 

25 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

But there's a key in the hands of smoke 
That fits a lock in the lazy brain, 

And we spring the wards with a quiet joke 
And rout out a store of yarns again. 

Our voices ring with a pleasant sound, 
And now and again it seems to me 

As though in the roar that sweeps around 
We are joined by the social sea. 

And in that strange way that talk is bred — 

As a few grains sown bring the wheaty stack- 
So something afresh the other said 

Put the roaming brain on another tack. 

And we boxed about in an aimless way, 
With a careless fling from sea to land, 

And spoke of the world as a young man may 
When he hasn't the time to understand. 

We spoke of the land that gave us birth; 

We spoke of the one that's home to me : 
Those nations destined to shape the earth 

To the single state it is to be — 

26 



ON THE BRIDGE. 

Of tricks we played in our school-boy days; 

The fun and frolic of being young; 
How we jollied life in a hundred ways 

With gibes that pleased and jests that stung. 

And of those we loved — for now we knew 
With half our life in the dim astern 

Which lights were false and which lights were 
true, 
And whose was the hand that bid them burn. 

Of the rough hard life the sailor leads, 
The pay he gets and the sharks ashore, 

And what are the laws our shipping needs. 
And the way things went in days of yore. 

Of the sailing ship as she yet survives, 

Of rigs we never shall see again, 
Of inventions that save our seamen's lives 

And murder the breed of sailor men. 

We talk of these and of many a bout 

When a crew came aft for a nasty row — 
When loud comes a cry from the fore look-out 

Of a light on the starboard bow. 

27 



SONGS OF SB A AND SAIL. 

**A\\ right!" the response. Then we train our eyes 
On the western rim thro' the closing night. 

It's a steamer, sure, by the flash and size — 
A liner's electric masthead light. 

She rises fast, and is soon up well, 
Rushing along 'neath a smoky pall, 

A mass of lights like some huge hotel 
Ablaze for its annual boarders' ball. 

As she grows abeam — for we give her space. 
For twenty knots is a right of way — 

There's an answering glow on old ocean's face 
And a glint on the waves in play. 

And I think, as I watch her speed along, 
Of the many lives she holds in trust. 

And ponder what they would do, that throng. 
If Fate should get in a deadly thrust. 

A ship like ours or a sunken wreck — 

A crash in the dark — some plates stove in — 

A frightened rush for the upper deck. 
And a clamorous, cowardly din ! 

28 



ON THE BRIDGE. 

How some would die as men should die, 
How some would perish in selfish strife, 

How some in that hour would dignify 
By a noble close a worthless life. 

How she whose vigor we oft deride — 

The woman — would show her courage then, 

And meet her death at her lover's side 
In a way to shame the best of men. 

But, Science be praised, it is seldom now 
We lose a ship by a sudden crash, 

For what with the lights and the whistle's row 
We luckily dodge a general smash. 

And that ship there, as she breasts the swell 
And ghosts her side with a foamy ridge, 

Has had many a shave — for logs don't tell 
All the tales of a steamer's bridge. 

In silence we watch her for quite a time 
Until she becomes a smoky blear, 

Then as ten rings out from the fo'c'sle chime 
I go aft to my cheese and my beer. 

29 



MISSING. 



A CLOUDLESS sky, a sleeping sea, 

A cold gray reach of shore, 
A gleam of sail upon the lee — 

And nothing more. 

My eyes saw that, my heart saw more: 

A woman whose quivering lip 
Moulded this sentence o'er and o'er, 

**God keep that ship!" 

God keep that ship ! Her prayer, not mine, 

Goes out across the sea 
To where beyond the misty line 

A face is turned from me. 
God keep that ship! Her ship, not mine — 

Mine never came back to me. 



30 



MAKING LAND. 



The fore-royal furled, I pause and I stand, 
Both feet on the yard, for a look around, 

With eyes that ache for a sight of the land, 
For we are homeward bound. 

Like a bowl of silver the ocean lies. 
Untouched by the fret of a single sail. 

And over its edge the billows uprise 
And slide before the gale. 

I see, close beneath me, the garn's'l bulge. 
And half of the tops'l swollen and round 

Swells out above, where the bunts divulge 
The fores'l's snowy mound. 

With a fill and a flap the jibs respond. 
As she rolls a-weather, then rolls a-lee. 

And her bone as she leaps is thrown beyond 
The next o'ertaken sea. 

31 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

And the hull beneath in its foamy ring 
Is narrowed in by the spread of sail, 

And the waves as they wash her seem to fling 
Their heads above the rail. 

And I hear the roar of the passing blast, 
And the hiss and gush of the parted sea 

Is mixed with the groan of the straining mast, 
And the parrel's, che, che, che. 

Of the weather deck where the old man strides. 
From the break of the poop to the after-rail, 

I can catch a glimpse, but all besides 
Is hid by swelling sail. 

For the wake abaft is shut behind, 

Except when she yaws from her helm and 
throws ; 
Then like a green lane it seems to wind 

Aheap with drifted snows. 

But lo! as I gaze the weather clew 
Of the topsail lifts to the watch's weight, 

And the helmsman comes into perfect view, 
And at his side the mate. 

32 



MAKING LAND. 

As I swing my eyes ahead again 

For that one last look ere I drop below, 

They catch as she lifts a grayish stain 
Athwart the orange glow. 

My heart leaps up at the welcome sight, 
And I grasp the pole with a firmer hand, 

And shading my eyes from the glancing light 
Make sure that it is land. 

It seems to dance, but I catch it still 
As we lift to the sweep of a longer sea — 

'T is the windy top of a far-off hill 
Whose shape is known to me. 

Then I send a yell to the rolling deck, 

And start all hands from their work below; 

As I point with a rigid arm at the speck — 
The cry comes back, "Land ho! " 

And the mate looks up and gives a call, 
The old man stops in his clock-like walk, 

The watch lets up on the top-sail fall 
And takes a spell of talk. 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

The skipper goes aft to the binnacle, where 
He shapes his hand on the compass card. 

And takes with a glance the bearing there, 
Eying me on the yard. 

And I stand with my right arm swinging out,, 
With a finger true on the dancing speck, 

Until on my ears falls the ringing shout : 
"All right! Lay down on deck!" 



34 



AT PORTSMOUTH 



The great ships in the harbour 

Sit silent on the tide, 
And in the sea beneath them 

Their gloomy shadows ride. 

There is no life, no beauty, 
No grace the heart can feel, 

In those irenic monsters — 
Those hideous forms of steel. 

It is old England's squadron. 
Her constant watch and ward — 

The bulwark of her freedom, 
The Channel's matchless guard. 

How different from the frigates 
That bore the dauntless Blake; 

How different from the liners 
That roared in Nelson's wake! 
35 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Majestic then and lofty 
They towered above the deep, 

Bestowing beauty on the main 
Their forms were framed to keep. 

Sail over sail they offered 
Their canvas to the wind, 

That mimicked in its whiteness 
The wake they swept behind. 

No wonder kingly seamen 
Were bred in ships like those; 

No wonder that they made them 
A terror to their foes. 

For in the grace and beauty 

They shed upon the sea 
Man found the inspiration 

That kept him brave and free. 

And man and ship together 
Played well that noble part, 

Until their oaken sides became 
A symbol for his heart. 

36 



AT PORTSMOUTH. 

But look ! where black and formless 
Those modern monsters ride 

A blot upon the seascape, 
A load upon the tide. 

Hark! from the massive flagship 
Breathes out the morning gun ; 

Exultant in its mission 
Her ensign meets the sun. 

From battle-ship and cruiser, 
From merchantman and fort, 

The cross of red makes glorious 
The strong and ancient port. 

Then with a heart that follows 

I turn my eager eyes 
To where at honored moorings 

The grand old victor lies. 

There floats the same proud bunting 
She swept along the breeze 

The day that France was broken 
And driven from the seas. 
37 



sojvgs of sea and sail. 

There in prophetic splendor 
It crowns her shapely spar, 

The promise of a future — 
The final Trafalgar. 



38 



AT ANCHOR. 



Sights of sail are caught on the edge — 
Black coasters waiting the flood; 

Nest of spars that stroke like the sedge 
Long rivers of sunset blood. 

Gleam of lamps low down in the west, 

Gulls crying over the bar, 
Sea as still as a child at breast, 

Moon following up a star. 

That is to-night — and our own to twist 
Round memory's finger and hold, 

As guerdon for those we've lost or missed 
While fretting and fighting for gold. 



39 



FROM THE CLIFF. 



The wind is fresh, the wind is foul; 
The clouds are long and low and gray; 
The rocky headland wears a cowl, 
And looks a monk who kneels to pray 
And tell his beads for parting souls: 
While out beyond the bar there rolls 
A sullen swell, and white and high 
Along the cliffs the breakers fly. 

Roar^ roary O Sea! Thy stormy song 
Appalls the weak^ but nerves the strong. 

Look ! yonder bark with puffing sail 
Has turned her bow to win the sea; 
She fears to meet the rising gale 
With reef and rockland on her lee. 
And as she luffs the blast to greet, 
By halyard, clew, and straining sheet, 
40 



FROM THE CLIFF. 

All, all, alert her seamen stand, 
And watch with anxious eye the land. 

Roar^ roar^ O Sea! Thy stormy song 
Appalls the weak, but nerves the strong. 

Then tack on tack she weathers out — 
Her topsails shiver in the wind; 
Down goes the helm, she flies about, 
And leaping off soon leaves behind 
The rocky dangers, and has past 
The headland, when the wrathful blast. 
Bursts from the cloud and wild and grand 
Hurls in the sea against the land. 

Roar, roar, O Seal Thy stormy song 
Appalls the weak, but nerves the strong. 



41 



THEN AND NOW. 



The wind has changed to happy south, 

The tide is setting free, 
As one by one, past harbor mouth, 

Our ships stand out to sea. 
We watch them pass, my love and I ; 

We shout Halloo ! from shore. 
Good-bye! Good-bye! the sailors cry; 

Good-bye ! the breakers roar. 

The wind has turned to icy north, 

Full bitterly it blows; 
The sea is wroth, and white with froth, 

And no ship comes or goes. 
We watch for them, my love and I; 

We linger on the shore. 
The breakers cry Ho! ho! Good-bye! — 

Good-bye for evermore. 



42 



THE SHIPS. 



Sing the sea, sing the ships, 

Sing the sea and its ships, 

With the Hghtness and the brightness 

Of the foam about their lips; 

When reaching off to seaward, 

When running down to leeward, 

When beating up to port with the pilot at the 

fore; 
When racing down the Trade, 
Or ratching half afraid 
With a lookout on the yard for the marks 

along the shore. 

Sing them when you frame them, 
Sing them when you name them, 
Sing them as you sing the woman whom you 
love ; 

43 



THE SHIPS. 

For the world of life they lose you, 
For the home that they refuse you, 
For the sea that deeps beneath them and the 
sky that crowns above. 

Sing them when they leave you, 

Sing them when they grieve you, 
Going down the harbor with a smoky tug along ; 

With the yards braced this and*that. 

And the anchor at the cat, 
And the bunting saying good-bye to the watch- 
ing, waving throng. 

Sing them when they need you. 

Sing them when they speed you, 
With their stems making trouble for the steep 
Atlantic seas; 
When the channel as she rolls 
Heaps the foam along the poles, 
And the decks fore-and-aft are awash above 
your knees. 

Sing them when they spring you, 
Sing them when they wing you, 



44 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Rolling down the Trades with a breeze that 
never shifts; 
When the crew they quite forget 
What is meant by cold and wet, 
And the feel of the braces and the sheets and 
the lifts. 

Sing them when they mock you, 
Sing them when they shock you, 
Smothered under topsails with the kingly Horn 
abeam ; 
When the wind flies round about 
And the watch is always out, 
And all hands are wishing that they'd signed 
to go in steam. 

Sing the sea, sing the ships, 
Sing the sea and its ships, 
With the molding and the folding 
Gf the wave about their form; 
Sing them when they teach us, 
Sing them when they preach us, 
A lesson in the calm and a sermon in the storm. 

45 



THE SHIPS. 

Sing them when the dying 
Wind has left them lying 
With the canvas in the brails a-tremble to the 
rolls; 
And the ocean is so still 
That you wonder if it will 
Give back to her who bore them those legions of 
lost souls. 

Sing the sea, sing the ships, 

Sing the sea and its ships, 

With the forming and the storming 

Of the wave athwart their bows; 

Sing them when you clear them, 

Sing them when you steer them, 

For the strength that they have given 

And the courage they arouse. 

For the nation that forgets them, 
For the nation that regrets them, 
Is a nation that is dying as the nations all must 
die; 
For there never yet was state 

46 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

That met the Roman fate 
While she had a ship to guard her and a sailor 
to stand by. 

For the traffic you have won, 
For the web that you have spun, 
To catch the flies of commerce and the fleet- 
ing gnats of trade 
Will be rent and blown away, 
For the weak will never pay 
Their earnings to a people who have stamped 
themselves afraid. 

Pull down the selfish wall! 
We are not cowards all! 
There are some who dare to struggle with the 
traders of the world. 
Cast off the nation's chain, 
And give us back the main, 
And the flag that's never absent and the sail 
that's never furled. 

Sing the sea, sing the ships, 
Sing the sea and its ships, 
47 



THE SHIPS. 

With the mounding and the pounding 
Of the wave along their sides; 
When sailing out and bounding, 
When towing in and rounding, 
They drop the anxious anchor and they face 
the swinging tides. 

Sing them when you leave them 
Sing them when you heave them 
To a fast berth, a last berth beside the knackers 
quay; 
For our ships are getting rotten 
And our people have forgotten 
The mission of the vessel and the glory of the 
sea. 



48 



THE MAN-O'-WAR'S-MAN'S YARN. 



Down came the corvette on our weather; 
Then thundered our broadsides together. 

Thus thus we fought all day ; 
And when the sun set and evening spread 

Across the East her mantle gray, 

Under our lee she lay, 
Her decks a mass of dead. 
Yet at her splintered foremast head 
Her ensign laughed, 
Lifting and flapping in the draft. 
Scorning our shot to bring it down. 
Our Captain eyed it with a frown 

To hide his admiration — 

Hero himself, he heroes knew, 

Tho' children of a hated nation. 
Then to his weary blood-stained crew 

He cried: — 

49 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

**To your guns once more 
And let our broadside roar!" 

Then hot and close we plied 
Her with shot that tore 
Her fore and aft ; 

Yet still that crimson banner laughed — 
Yet still her broken, bleeding men 
Gave back our cheers again. 

We would have spared them then; 

As with fierce and flashing eyes, 
With eyes aflame with pride. 
We looked upon a foe 
Who for twelve hot hours defied 

A vessel twice her size. 
But Fate thrust in a bloody fist 
And gave our hearts a devilish twist. 
A random shot that hit our rail 

Came from her foremost gun, 
And flying in the splinter hail 

Struck down the one 
Whose voice had shaped and cheered the fray 
Thro' all that mad and murderous day. 

50 



THE MAN-O'-WARS-MAKTS YARN. 

He fell; and for a space we stood 

As though our smoke-grimed forms had turned 
to wood, 
The victims of some deadly spell. 

Silence — save for the feverish groans of they 

Who, writhing, dying lay — 
Was over all ; then suddenly there burst a yell 
That would have shocked and staggered hell ! 

Ah ! you who sit with me to-night 
And talk of war, of might and right; 
Had you been there to see that fight, 
When, reeling down upon the wreck, 
We boarded, leaping on her deck, 
And mad with slaughter — mad and blind 
With blood of ours, aye, your own kind. 
We shot and cut, we slew 
The remnant of that dauntless crew; 
And when our pikes had struck the last 
Tore down that ensign from the mast. 
Had you been there, I say, to see 
That horror — but, enough for me 

51 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

To tell, we shuddered at the sight 
When in the chill that follows fight 
We gazed upon that slaughter pen 
And knew those things as fellow-men. 
With feverish haste we cleared the deck, 
Then fired the slowly sinking wreck. 
And cutting loose stood off astern, 
And watched her spar and topsides burn 
Till suddenly a blinding flash; 
A roar. Silence. Here — there — a splash 
And all was o'er. We filled our yard, 
Though leaking much and laboring hard 
Stood up for port, and made at last 
The harbor's light. But ho ! avast 
With tales like this; they breed a thirst — 
Another glass — my throat is curs'd 
With fire. Here's to the gallant tar 
Who talks of peace, yet longs for war; 
Who lives to see his ship again 
Dispute the glory of the main, 
And man for man, and gun for gun. 
Meet such another dauntless one. 

52 



A FOGGY MORNING. 



Seaward driving, like a shriving 

Gray monk cloaked in gray, 
Thro' the crowded ship-enshrouded. 

Buoy-bound reaches of the bay; 
Misty moving phantoms proving 

Vessels creeping slowly past. 
Hark ! the droning fog-horn moaning 

From the steamer looming vast; 
Bell-buoy telling when the swelling 

Swell of ocean rocks its boat 
Where the ledge's granite edges 

Threaten ships that overfioat; 
Canvas dripping, dew streams slipping 

Down the black and swollen gear; 
Helmsman peering at the steering 

Compass thro* a watery blear; 
Topsails dimming in the swimming 

Vapor sea that floats o'erhead, 
53 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

And the singing seaman swinging 

Constantly the pilot lead; 
Sun uprising with surprising 

Mystic glory haunts the shroud, 
Red and rolling thro' the shoaling 

Eastward verges of the cloud ; 
Spars uplifting on the shifting 

Billows of the fading mist 
Seem suspended on extended 

Rippling ropes of amethyst; 
Day-star bursting, hotly thirsting, 

Drains the fog with fervid lips; 
Sunlight flashing shows us dashing 

Past the port, the town, the ships. 



54 



UNKNOWN. 



Lo ! when the sun was half dropt in the west, 
As wing-weary sea birds seeking their night- 
rest, 
They drifted in upon the harbor's breast. 

None knew from whence they came, or where 

they sailed ; 
No betraying pennon from their mastheads 

trailed ; 

They answered not when they were loudly 

hailed. 

When the day into the night had died 
They clustered on the ebbing tide. 
Like sleeping sea swans, side by side. 

The warders at the midnight hour, 
Within the shadow of the tower. 
Watched their lanterns rise and lower. 

55 



SONGS OF SB A AND SAIL. 

Ere scarce the day and earth had wed, 
Their oars on either side they spread, 
Shook out their sails and southward fled. 

And when the sun shot up across the bay, 
Naught showed where they had made their stay, 
Save the broken corals where their anchors lay. 

So into my heart at eventide 
Ofttimes a fleet of dreams will glide, 
And all night long at anchor ride. 

From whence they come, or where they go. 
What pain or joy their forms foreshow, 
I dare not ask — I cannot know. 

But when dawn breaks o'er sea and mart. 
With rippling oars and yearning sails'they start. 
Leaving their anchor marks upon my'^heart. 



56 



THE COASTERS. 



Ove7'loaded, underma7ined^ 

Trusting to a lee; 
Playing I-spy with the land, 

Jockeyiyig the sea — 
That's the way the Coaster goes. 

Thro* calm and hurricane: 
Everywhere the tide flows^ 
Everywhere the wind blows^ 

From Mexico to Maine. 

O East and West! O North and South! 

We ply along the shore, 
From famous Fundy's foggy mouth, 

From voes of Labrador; 
Thro' pass and strait, on sound and sea, 

From port to port we stand — 
The rocks of Race fade on our lee, 

We hail the Rio Grande. 
57 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Our sails are never lost to sight; 

On every gulf and bay 
They gleam, in winter wind-cloud white, 

In summer rain-cloud gray. 

We hold the coast with slippery grip; 

We dare from cape to cape; 
Our leaden fingers feel the dip 

And trace the channel's shape. 
We sail or bide as serves the tide; 

Inshore we cheat its flow, 
And side by side at anchor ride 

When stormy head-winds blow. 
We are the offspring of the shoal, 

The hucksters of the sea; 
From customs theft and pilot toll, 

Thank God that we are free. 

Legging on and off the beach^ 

Drifting up the strait^ 
Fluking down the river reach ^ 

Towing thro' the Gate — 



58 




THE COASTERS. 

That's the way the Coaster goes, 

Flirting with the gale: 
Everywhere the tide flows, 
Everywhere the wind blows, 

From York to Beavertail. 



Here and there to get a load. 

Freighting anything; 
Run7ting ofl^ with spa^iker stowed^ 

Loafing wifig-a-wing — 
ThaV s the way the Coaster goes. 

Chumming with the land: 
Everywhere the tide Hows, 
Everywhere the wind blows. 

From Ray to Rio Grande. 

We split the swell where rings the bell 

On many a shallow's edge, 
We take our flight past many a light 

That guards the deadly ledge, 
We greet Montauk across the foam, 

We work the Vineyard Sound, 

The Diamond sees us running home, 

The Georges outward bound; 
59 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Absecom hears our canvas beat 
When tacked off Brigantine, 

We raise the Gulls with lifted sheet, 
Pass wing-and-wing between. 

Off Monomoy we fight the gale, 

We drift off Sandy Key ; 
The watch of Fenwick sees our sail 

Scud for Henlopen's lee. 
With decks awash and canvas torn 

We wallow up the Stream; 
We drag dismasted, cargo borne, 

And fright the ships of steam. 
Death grips us with his frosty hands 

In calm and hurricane; 
We spill our bones on fifty sands 

From Mexico to Maine. 

Cargo reef in wain and fore ^ 
Manned by half a crew; 

Romping up the weather shore^ 
Edging down the Blue — 



60 



THE COASTERS. 

That' s the way the Coaster goes y 

Scouting with the lead: 
Everywhere the tide flows ^ 
Everywhere the wind blows. 
From Cruz to Quoddy Head. 



6i 



TO-DAY. 



The sea and the sky are in love to-day, 
Their forms are the forms of one; 

And ships that sit on the lip of the bay, 
Coming and going the other way. 

Are sparks in the sparkling sun. 

The shape and shadow of yachts that slip 

Embayed by the land's long sweep 
Are phantoms that cover a phantom ship, 

While out on the shoals the summer gulls dip- 
To-day is a day asleep. 



62 



THE SAILOR OF THE SAIL. 



I SING the Sailor of the Sail, breed of the 

oaken heart, 
Who drew the world together and spread our 

race apart, 

Whose conquests are the measure of thrice the 

ocean's girth, 
Whose trophies are the nations that necklace 

half the earth. 

Lord of the Bunt and Gasket and Master of the 

Yard, 
To whom no land was distant, to whom no sea 

was barred : 

Who battled with the current; who conquered 

with the wind; 
Who shaped the course before him by the wake 

he threw behind; 

63 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Who burned in twenty climates; who froze in 

twenty seas; 
Who crept the shore of Labrador and flash'd 

the Caribbees. 

Who followed Drake; who fought with Blake; 

who broke the bar of Spain, 
And who gave to timid traffic the freedom of 

the main. 

Who woke the East; who won the West; who 

made the North his own; 
Who weft his wake in many a fake athwart the 

Southern zone; 

Who drew the thread of commerce through 

Sunda's rocky strait; 
Who faced the fierce Levanter where England 

holds the gate; 

Who saw the frozen mountains draw down the 

moonlike sun; 
Who felt the gale tear at the sail, and ice gnaw 

at the run; 

64 



THE SAILOR OF THE SAIL, 



Who drove the lance of barter through Asia's 
ancient shield; 

V - 

Who tore from drowsy China what China dare 
not yield; 



Who searched with Cook and saw him unroll 

beneath his hand 
The last, the strangest continent, the sundered 

Southern land; 

To whom all things were barter — slaves, spices, 

gold, and gum; 
Who gave his life for glory; who sold his soul 

for rum — 

I sing him, and I see him, as only those can 

see 
Who stake their Hves to fathom that solveless 

mystery; 

Who on the space of waters have fought the 

killing gale, 
Have heard the crying of the spar, the moaning 

of the sail; 

65 - '--^ 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Who never see the ocean but that they feel its 

hand 
Clutch like a siren at the heart to drag it from 

the land; 

I see him in the running when seas would over- 
whelm 

Lay breathing hard along the yard and sweat- 
ing at the helm. 

I see him at the earing light out the stubborn 

bands 
When every foot of canvas is screeved with 

bloody hands. 

I see him freezing, starving — I see him scurvy 

curst, 
Alone, and slowly dying, locked in that hell of 

thirst. 

I see him drunk and fighting roll through some 

seaboard town, 
When those who own and rob him take to the 

street and frown. 
66 



THE SAILOR OF THE SAIL. 

O Sovereign of the Boundless ! O Bondsman 

of the Wave ! 
Who made the world dependent, yet lived and 

died a slave. 

In Britain's vast Valhalla, where sleep her 

worst and best — 
Where is the grave she made you— your first 

and final rest — 

Beneath no stone or trophy, beneath no 

minster tower. 
Lie those who gave her Empire, who stretched 

her arm to power. 

Below those markless pathways where com- 
merce shapes the trail, 

Unsung, unrung, forgotten, sleeps The Sailor 
of The Sail. 



67 



THE YACHT. 



How like a queen she walks the summer sea; 
Her canvas crowning well the comely mold 
Light loved until it lifts a spire of gold 

Outlined and inset by a tracery 

Of rig and spar. Hers is a witchery 

Of loveliness, that seems to draw and hold 

The wind to do its bidding. Fold on fold 

The seas charge in; then stricken by the free 
Quick lancing of her stem recoil to break 

Against the breeze; then rushing back they foam 
Along the rail, and swirl into the wake, 
And rave astern in many a wrinkled dome. 

For thus she doth her windward way betake 
Like one who lives to conquer and to roam. 



68 



THE TRADE-WIND'S SONG. 



Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love— 
I am steady, and strong, and true; 

They follow my track by the clouds above 
O'er the fathomless tropic blue. 

For close by the shores of the sunny Azores 

Their ships I await to convoy; 
When into their sails my constant breath pours 

They hail me with turbulent joy. 

Oh, I bring them a rest from the tiresome toil 
Of trimming the sail to the blast; 

For I love to keep gear all snug in the coil 
And the sheets and the braces all fast. 

From the deck to the truck I pour all my force, 
In spanker and jib I am strong; 

For I make every course to pull like a horse 
And worry the great ship along. 

69 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

As I fly o'er the blue I sing to the crew, 
Who answer me back with a hail; 

I whistle a note as I sUp by the throat 
Of the buoyant and bellying sail. 

I laugh when the wave leaps over the head 
And the jibs thro' the spray-bow shine, 

For an acre of foam is broken and spread 
When she shoulders and tosses the brine. 

Thro' daylight and dark I follow the bark, 
I keep like a hound on her trail; 

I'm strongest at noon, yet under the moon 
I stiffen the bunt of her sail; 

The wide ocean thro' for days I pursue. 
Till slowly my forces all wane; 

Then in whispers of calm I bid them adieu 
And vanish in thunder and rain. 

Oh, I am the wind that the seamen love — 
I am steady, and strong, and true; 

They follow my track by the clouds above 
O'er the fathomless tropic blue. 



70 



EXECUTION ROCK LIGHT. 



Out on its knoll of granite gray, 

Old Execution rears its ghostly shaft, 
And thro' the night and thro' the day 

Speaks cheer to passing craft ; 
While in the sun they see it gleam 

Upon the horizon, miles afar, 
And in the dark its changeful beam 

Flames out a guiding star. 
From year to year, thro' calm and gale, 

Across the Sound its warning flare is cast- 
It cries " All's well ! " to steam and sail 

And guides them safely past. 
One day it hides its form in haze 

And seems to sentinel some mystic strand; 
The next, it glories in the blaze 

Of morning's crimson brand. 



71 



SONGS OF SB A AND SAIL. 

And now across the stormy tide 

It spires against the sandy bluff, and shows 
The front of one who will abide 

The shock of lusty blows. 
Along its reef the surges roll, 

And white with repulse rise and^fling their 
froth 
Like snow across the rocky knoll, 

Then burst in foamy wrath. 
And there it stands, fearless, sedate, 

Like some brave knight who scorns to couch 
his lance 
Against the churls, but with his weight 

Bears back their wild advance. 



72 



THE CARGO BOATS. 



I LOVE to see them, laden deep, 
Come steaming in from ports afar, 

And, slipping past the light-ship, creep 
With watchful steps across the bar. 

Mauled by the hands of tide and time, 

All grimy with their grimy coals, 
Their funnels white with salty rime. 

And smoky rings about their poles. 

Look, now, along the Gedney lane, 

With pushing bows comes slowly through 
A West of England cargo wain, 

With banded stack and star of blue. 

There is no beauty in her form ; 

But when has simple beauty paid 
In vessel destined to perform 

As Cinderella to the trade? 

73 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Go, let her haughty sisters flaunt 

Their sightly stems and graceful sheers; 

But let her best, her only vaunt, 
Be that she is as she appears — 

A thing that men have framed to bear 
Their merchandise at cheapest rates, 

That's safe to pay a pound a share, 

And more when there's a boom in freights; 

A monster whelped of monster age — 
An age that thinks but cannot feel — 

Whose Bible is the balanced page, 

Whose gods are gods of steam and steel. 

In her I love the useful thing — 

In her I hate the sailless mast ; 
For I am one who cares to sing 

The glories of the steamless past. 

I feel the spirit of the age — 

The master splendor of its span — 

But make no common with the rage 
That lifts the thing above the man. 

74 



THE CARGO BOATS. 

But useless this — we've learned to make 
The word mechanic fit a song; 

So let us watch that ship and take 
Her picture as she jogs along. 

The house-flag hoist; the ensign spread; 

The tackles rove; the booms atop; 
The deck-gang busy on the head; 

The anchor ready for the drop. 

Though from this outlook men appear 
No bigger than a dancing midge, 

I see the pilot standing near 

The skipper on the upper bridge. 

The telegraph is set ''stand by"; 

The oldest hand is at the wheel ; 
And down below with watchful eye 

The Chief awaits the warning peal. 

The engines hiss; the 'scape-pipe roars; 

The firemen spread the dusty slack, 
And sternward from her funnel pours 

A cloud that lingers in her track. 
75 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

The Hook is past, the buoy abeam; 

Then slowly to her helm she turns, 
And getting confidence and steam 

At full speed up the bay she churns. 

Her lean hull shrinks, her spars grow short, 
Her trailing flag is scarcely seen, 

As slipping past the granite fort 
She drops her hook off Quarantine. 

And we who watch her turn away 
And talk of ships and other things, 

The present and the future day. 

And what the world will do with wings. 

How men will stir with busy hum 
The upper main, by wake untraced. 

And how the ocean will become 
Again a sailless, shipless waste. 



76 



THE NOONTIDE CALM. 



I. 

The azure sky leans on the sea, 
Inverting its concavity, 
And in the waveless depths below 
Re-forms and rolls its cloudy show; 
For cloud and cloud are piled to shape 
A mountain here, and there a cape, 
Until the heavens seem to rest 
A cheek upon the ocean's breast. 
And listen, with white lips apart. 
To catch the beating of its heart. 
Fathoms deep, oh, fathoms deep, 
Maid and merman lie asleep; 
Calm above and calm below; 
Sheering to the current's flow, 
Vessels red and vessels brown, 
Floating, cast a shadow down 
On the seafolks* coral town. 

77 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

II. 

Slowly the shadows crawl 
Along the wall 
Of the sea-king's hall. 
The sea-grass curtains thro' 
He looks out upon the blue 
Glimmering regions that bow down 
To the magic of his crown. 
Lord of half an ocean, he 
Loves to live where rivers three. 
Flowing from the windy hills, 
Drinkers of a thousand rills, 
Pour into the thirsty sea. 
There he delights to lie, 
Mirroring the lucent sky 
In his wild and wondrous eye. 
Far, far o'erhead he marks 
The swordfish and the sharks 
Darting up and floating down; 
Sees the porpoise, blue and brown, 
Plunge thro' the silver nebula 
Of fish; — the herring in dismay 
78 



THE NOONTIDE CALM, 

Break, scatter like a starry host 
Whose path some errant sun has cross'd. 
And he smiles to watch the race 
When the merry dolphins chase 
A dogfish from his flying prey; 
Where the clumsy sea-cows stray, 
Herded by the mermen strong. 
Who, with lances light and long. 
Keep the gaunt sea-wolves at bay. 

III. 

Shades of vessels that have passed 
Rope and sail and yellow mast — 
On the seafolks' town are cast; 
And the Merking, startled by 
Shadows in his crystal sky. 
Calls the guard at palace gate, 
Where he reigns in ancient state, 
Sitting on a coral throne, 
With sea-mosses overgrown — 
Calls his guard to send a slave 
Skyward, soaring thro' the wave, 
79 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

To command the mariner 

To move on. The messenger, 

A dolphin bold, 

With back of gold, 

Swiftly cleaving, swirling, leaving 

A flashing trail, 

As from each scale 

And finny tip 

A silver spray of bubbles slip. 

Higher, higher rises he, 

Till from the surface of the sea 

He leaps, and gloriously 

Rolls his flashing coat of mail 

In the splendor of the day. 

Then the sailors trim the sail. 

Knowing that the sprightly gale 

Cometh when the dolphins play. 

Haste away ! Haste away ! 

For the breeze 

Frets the seas. 

And the rim of opal hue 

Burns a green and flames a blue. 

80 



THEJOLD BUCCANEER'S SONG. 



Oh, my heart goes privateering along the 

Spanish Main, 
And I feel the breezes blowing and see those 

isles again — 
Those isles of peace and plenty where we loved 

to linger long, 
To"woo the black-eyed Carib maid who sang 

the rover's song; 
Who, resting in the palm shade when the sun 

was fierce above, 
With many a tender measure taught us what 

indeed is love. 

Oh, my heart goes privateering along the 

Spanish Main, 
And I hear my comrades calling me back to 

them again; 

8i 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

For 'tis where the breakers, roaring, flash in and 

beat the sand — 
'Tis where the feathery plantain shakes its 

shadow on the strand ; 
'Neath orange and palmetto and many a flowery 

tree 
Dwell the gallant privateersmen who drink 

and think of me. 

Oh, my heart goes privateering along the 

Spanish Main — 
I see our banners flying and I hear the cheers 

again : 
When with many a reckless comrade in vessel 

tall and true, 
Before the constant trade-wind to the south- 

and-west we flew. 
And ere the haughty Spaniard had thought of 

danger near 
Town and tower and galleon were spoil of 

buccaneer. 



82 



THE OLD BUCCANEERS SONG. 

Oh, my heart goes privateering along the 

Spanish Main, 
And many a pearl and red doubloon chink in 

my hand again. 
Back, back unto the sunny isle to rest a season 

there — 
To bind a lace of priceless gems in my sweet 

Carib's hair. 
To feel her arms about my neck, to hear her 

sing again 
The pleasures and the glories of our life 

along the main. 

Oh, my heart goes privateering along the 

Spanish Main, 
For I am weary waiting for those days to 

come again. 
A curse upon this slothful life and this black 

northern land ! 
Oh, give to me the sapphire sea and balmy 

southern strand ! 



83 



SOJVGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Oh, let me hear but once again my comrades' 

ringing cheers, 
And lead to spoil and victory the dashing 

buccaneers. 



H 



THE BELFRY OF THE SEA. 



Men who bless them 

And caress them — 
Bells that call upon the land — 

Curse and chide them, 

Mock^ deride them, 
When they shout above a sand. 
Not alone are bells thus treated, 
For the story is repeated 
In the world of every day; 

He who flings us — 

He who brings us — 
Joys and pleasures all may share, 
Has our blessings for his pay j 

But he who warns us — 

He who mourns us. 
Bids us to the watch and ware — 

Has our curses, 

And reverses 
In the moulds that mint our prayer 

85 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

singer of the sailor's song, 

Fear not to sing me broad and strong- 
Fear not to sing me in the van 
Of those who stand and strive for man; 
And if they make the question, then 
Come tell me what man does for men. 

1 am the Belfry of the Sea, 
The rider of the swell. 

The guardsman of the deadly lee, 
The outer sentinel. 

Man placed me here to watch this sand- 
This sneaking, shifting shoal — 

He shaped me with a clever hand, 
So that my bell doth toll 

With every move and motion 

Of the changeful, changeless ocean. 

Mine is a thankless task; 

But no recompense I ask. 

I am hated by the shoal; 

I am hated by the sea; 

86 



THE BELFRY OF THE SEA. 

And the very fish that bask 
In the shadow of my cask 
Are half afraid of me. 

The land wind speaks me fair, 
For it has no thought or care 
With the deeds that are done 

In the midnight and the gale; 
And it bears me on its wing 
A welcome offering 
Of the shouting of the upland 

And the chatter of the shale. 

But most I love the weather 
When the wind and sea together 
Lie locked in summer slumber 

And the sky sleeps overhead, 
For then I ease the strain 
On my anchor and my chain, 
And ring a muffled service 

For my shattered, scattered dead. 

I am never wholly sad; 
I am never wholly glad ; 

87 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

For my sadness is half madness 
And my gladness is half sadness 
For the remnants of the wrecks 
That lie below me cast 

A gloom upon the wave, 
And my sunny days are past 
Sleeping in the shadow 

That is shaken from a grave. 

'Twas not I who betrayed them ; 
'Twas not I who waylaid them ; 
But they died with curses for me 

On their water-wasted lips. 
I did my best to save them 
The warning that I gave them 
Is the warning that has succored 

Ten thousand watchful ships. 

Ah, had they used the lead ! 
Ah, had they tacked instead 
Of standing blindly onward 
Without a watch for me! 



88 



THE BELFRY OF THE SEA. 

They would have heard me tolling; 
They would have seen me rolling; 
And have had a chance to weather 
And gain the open sea. 

For I mark a dreaded danger 
To the coaster and the stranger, 
For my friend below is silent 

And shows no foamy chain. 
Not like the sunken ledge; 
Not like the reefs that wedge 
The surges from the undergrip 

And hurl them out again. 

For the reef it warns the ship 
By the frothing and the snowing 
Of its rocky underlip; 

For it shows its broken teeth, 
And it bares the bone beneath, 
And roars sometimes in anger, 

And it cries sometimes in grief. 



89 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

But this sluggish and this sucking 

spread of sand 
It is dead to ear and eye; 
And its very bounds defy 
The laws that keep in order 
The stout and stable land. 

It changes every storm; 
And I never know its form — 
I who gird and guard it 

With my constant clanging bell — 
It scarcely gives me hold 
For my anchor in its mold; 
And we shift and change together 

With each mighty, moving swell. 

But I rob it of its prey, 

For the ships have time to stay. 

When the wind takes up my music 

And bears it out to sea; 
But when the Easters roar 
And drive upon the shore 



90 



THE BELFRY OF THE SEA. 

My loudest cry of warning 
Is tossed and lost a-lee. 

Then, then I cry in anger, 

And the clanging and the clangor 

Shake and shock the bars 

Of my tossing, toiling cage; 
And I curse the wind and sea, 
And the chain that's under me 
Strains its links and surges 

With the transports of my rage. 

For I know I cannot save them; 

And the shoal that thinks to grave them- 

That will feed its thousand acres 

On their oaken frames and sides — 
It seems to mound its spread. 
It seems to lift its head, 
As though to make more deadly 

The tangle of its tides. 

In the snow, in the fog. 

When the sharpest eyes are blind; 



91 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

When the ocean 

Has scarce motion, 

And the wind 

Has forsaken; 

When my power of speech is taken, 

And I sit in silent pain; 

When I toil and toil in vain 

To force the larum note 

From the muscles of my throat, 

And it only breathes a toll 

That dies upon the shoal; 

And I strive and I writhe 

With the pain of action palsied 

By a force beyond control. 
When I cannot see or hear them; 
When I cannot warn or cheer them; 
And only know that they are there 

By the throbbing of my soul. 

For I know that they will blame me; 
For I know that they will name me 
With the bitterest of curses 
For the silence of my note, 
92 



THE BELFRY OF THE SEA. 

And I stoop and pray the sea 
To lend its aid to me; 
But it mocks me with a ripple 
That scarcely wets my float. 

And then I hear them calling, 

As slowly, slowly crawling 

They come working in from seaward 

With their whistles crying where f 
And I try to answer back 

That I'm lying in the track; 
But the loudest cry I make them 

Is a thread upon the air. 

Swing — swing — 

Ring — ring — 
Roll — roll — 

Toll — toll — 
Just a thing 

Without a soul^ 
Doing its duty on the shoal; 

Just a bell 
That sea and swell 

93 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

In their fury ^ in their play ^ 
Set a throbbing^ 

And a sobbing; 
By their very madness robbing — 

By their rage and rush defeating, 
By their hate and hurry cheating — 

Ocean of its prey. 
Swing — swing — 

Ring — ring — 
Roll — roll — 

Toll— toll. 



94 



PHANTOMS. 



Like a tide that runs increasing, 

Bearing ships to port again, 
There's a tide that brings unceasing 

Pleasures to my restless brain. 

When at night I sit and swinging 
Idly to a strain of thought, 

Then it flows, resistless, bringing 
Countless tales with pleasure fraught. 

And it seems as though the olden 

Stories of the mystic sea 
Came like ships to bear their golden, 

Precious cargoes unto me. 

For I hail with deep emotion 

All those gray and ghostly forms, 

Phantoms of the shoreless ocean 
That is swept by constant storms. 

95 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

And I see from mist-enshrouded, 
Ancient, half-forgotten tales 

Galleons rise, and memory clouded, 
Pass with faint and formless sails. 

Others come, the tall and splendid 
Monarchs of the oaken side. 

Who, with master arms, contended 
For the empire of the tide. 

One by one they pass in glory — 
Stately shapes that led the van — 

Builders of the ocean's story. 
Noblest gift of man to man. 

And not less the worn and shattered, 
Drifting, find my port at last. 

All the stranded, stove, and battered 
Victims of the wave and blast, 

They are mine by right of capture: 
Buccaneer and ship of plate; 

And I search their holds with rapture 
Till the night grows cold and late; 

96 



PHANTOMS. 

Till the moon, high-prowed and dipping, 
Like a ship of ancient worth, 

Leaves her cloudy port and slipping, 
Spins her wake across the earth. 

And the wind, to peace consenting, 
Breathes a hymn above the land; 

And the ocean, half repenting, 
Kneels in prayer along the sand. 



97 



FLOTSAM. 



For the tide runs in and the tide runs out, 
And the women they talk and wait, 

For hope has a soul that is built of doubt, 
And our ships are ofttimes late. 

And the tide runs up and the tide runs down, 

And the drift goes floating past; 
A message it bears to the waiting town 

In form of a broken mast. 

Look! no seaweed yellows its shattered ends[! 

No shell-fish whiten its girth ! 
'Tis a message, they cry, old Ocean sends 

To those they have left on earth ! 

And the tide runs up and the tide runs down, 

And the sea reclaims its toll; 
But the hopes that live in that stricken town 

Are those hopes that have no soul. 



98 



'"•"■"■•*"<r*f""^Jrl">" 



THE LOST SHIP. 



Who saw the ship going down to the sea 

With her topsails sheeted home, and her 
spanker 

Swelling like a course, foam along the lee, 
And the crew on the tackle of the anchor ? 

Who saw her running off from the land. 

Wind blowing strong, steering true for the 
light-ship, 

But went away wishing he might command 
Some future day such a tall, such a tight ship? 

Came she never back again to that port? 

Long did they wait, watching out at eve and 
morn. 
Last was she seen hove-to with canvas short 
By an eastward bounder scudding past the 
Horn. 

99 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Who saw her sink that midnight in the storm ? 

Where does she lie, rig-tangled and hull- 
broken ? 
Sails she, perhaps, a ghostly, gliding form, 

That silent sea where ships are never spoken? 



lOO 



mm»-mtm-mmiM 



,iii ■' I I < rr-ra ^ -tT i 



- l e t ^0tm\% .. \ j£t II ^111 1 t<i<M 



THE MAIN-SHEET SONG. 



Rushing along on a narrow reach, 

Our rival under the lee, 
The wind falls foul of the weather leach, 

And the jib flaps fretfully. 
The skipper casts a glance along, 

And handles his wheel to meet — 
Then sings in the voice of a stormy song, 

"All hands get on that sheet!" 

Yo ha! Yo ho! Then give her a spill, 

With a rattle of blocks abaft. 
Yo ha! Yo ho! Come down with a will 

And bring the main-sheet aft. 

Rolling the foam up over the rail 

She smokes along and flings 
A spurt of spray in the curving sail, 

And plunges and rolls and springs; 

lOI 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

For a wild, wet spot is the scuppers* sweep, 
As we stand to our knees along — 

It's a foot to make and a foot to keep 
As we surge to the buUie's song. 

Yo ha! Yo ho! Then give her a spill 

With a rattle of blocks abaft. 
Yo ha! Yo ho! Come down with a will 

And bring the main-sheet aft. 

Muscle and mind are a winning pair 

With a lively plank below, 
That whether the wind be foul or fair 

Will pick up her heels and go; 
For old hemp and hands are shipmates long — 

There's work whenever they meet — 
So here's to a pull that's steady and strong, 

When all hands get on the sheet. 

Yo ha! Yo ho! Then give her a spill 

With a rattle of blocks abaft. 
Yo ha! Yo ho! Come down with a will 

And bring the main-sheet aft. 



I02 



THE LANDFALL 



The scent of the soil is strong on ttie breeze, 

The gulls are many and shrill, 
And over the crest of the cresting seas 

Is floating a rosy hill; 
And right at the base of this filmy shape, 

Just clear of the weather shroud. 
Say, is it ship, or is it a cape. 

Or a hard spot in the cloud? 
But hark ! from aloft where the seaman swings, 

And points with an eager hand, 
Then fore and aft the glad cry rings — 

Land, ho, land! 



103 



THE CLIPPER. 



Her sails are strong and yellow as the sand, 
Her spars are tall and supple as the pine, 
And, like the bounty of a generous mine, 

Sun-touched, her brasses flash on every hand. 

Her sheer takes beauty from a golden band, 
Which, sweeping aft, is taught to twist and twine 
Into a scroll, and badge of quaint design 

Hang on her quarters. Insolent and grand 
She drives. Her stem rings loudly as it throws 

The hissing sapphire into foamy waves. 
While on her weather bends the copper glows 

In burnished splendor. Rolling down she laves 
Her high black sides until the scupper flows, 

Then pushing out her shapely bow she braves 
The next tall sea, and, leaping, onward goes. 



104 



THE CONSTITUTION. 



Where Glory dwells a hundred years, 

That spot becomes a shrine, 
The very soil she trod appears 

To bear the touch divine; 
The rusted gun, the shattered blade, 

Are kept with sacred hand, 
And Honor bows before the shade 

That fought to save the land. 

Then why neglect — why give to rot 

This victor of the flood ? 
Is she less holy than the spot 

That drank a hero's blood ? 
Has she no plume to wing a thought — 

No spark to fire a mind? 
In names like her's such deeds are wrought 

As glorify mankind. 



105 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

And they, whose mighty banner fell 

Before her lightning's blast, 
Their victor rides the harbor swell 

Unshorn of yard and mast; 
And Glory gilds her like a sun, 

When, steaming thro' the wave, 
With dipping flag and rapid gun. 

The brave salute the brave. 

Then give ours back, the sail, the spar- 
Go let her broadside roar ! 

A gun for every glit'ring star 
Her conquering ensign bore. 

To show ye have not held in vain 
The heritage she kept, 

Oh, let her image grace again 
The sea she proudly swept ! 



io6 



THE TARTAR. 



The wind from East to South has shifted, 
The sea's gone down and the clouds are 

rifted, 
And broad on the larboard bow are seen 
A full-rigged ship and a brigantine, 
With a topsail schooner in between — 

All bound to London Town. 

The ship with a golden freight is freighted. 
The old brigantine with coal is weighted, 
The schooner's a slippery privateer. 
With roguish rig and a saucy sheer — 
Her cargo is guns and hearts of cheer — 

All bound to London Town. 

A Frenchman out of old Brest is cruising, 
*' A chance," says he, "there's no refusing. 



107 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

I will drive that privateer away; 

The ship and the brig will be my prey, 

For we don't meet prizes every day — 

All bound to London Town." 

Then, crowding sail, on the wind he hurried; 
The ship and the brig they worried and 

scurried. 
The privateer, with her canvas short, 
Just showed a muzzle at every port, 
For she'd a crew of the fighting sort — 

When bound to London Town. 

The Frenchman tacked the weather gauge after; 
The privateer cut the sea abaft her; 
Before she had time to ease a turn 
They drove a broadside into her stern. 
For fighting's a trade one's apt to learn — 

When bound to London Town. 

Then side by side with their guns they pounded, 
Till catching a puff the schooner rounded. 



1 08 



THE TARTAR. 

And ere they had way to do the like, 
She laid them aboard with blade and pike, 
So what could the Brestman do but strike — 

And go to London Town? 

The wind from East to the South has shifted, 
The sea's gone down and the clouds are rifted, 
And broad on the larboard bow are seen 
A privateer and a brigantine. 
With a captured Frenchman in between — 

All bound to London Town. 



109 



WARNING. 



When the old moon hangs to the cloud's gray 
tail 
And the stars play in and out; 
When the East grows red and the West looks 
pale 
And the wind goes knocking about; 

When over the edge of the shapeless coast, 
Where the horizon bites the cloud, 

The rack of the rain stalks in like a ghost 
And a sail blows through its shroud — 

When the morn is such, of the noon beware! 

For this calm's a stormy feint: 
A reef in the sail is better than prayer, 

For a snug ship needs no saint. 



no 



IN SEPTEMBER. 



Oh, the wind, the wind, 

And the white wake behind; 

And the land 

Of yellow sand, 

Looming like a band 

Of gold along the rim; 

And the laughter of the sea, 

And the sense of mystery, 

In the dim 

Stretch of lee, 

Where the haze 

In the blaze 

Of heat seems to meet 

The sky. 

Oh, the happy sails that fly 

To the east, to the south. 

And the light-house at the mouth 

Of the bay 

With its gray 

III 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Granite spire 

Bold against the higher 

Lift o' green, 

And a smoky tug-boat's trail 

Flaunting like a tail 

Of stormy cloud, 

And a steamer in between 

With her paddles whirring round. 

Oh, a day upon the Sound, 

With the wind, the wind, 

Coming out behind, 

And the feeling of content 

That is lent 

To the mind. 

When the sailing breeze is fair, 

And your only thought or care 

Is to keep 

The sails asleep, 

And run. 

Until the sun 

Drops in the West — 

Then rest is best. 

112 



THE HOMEWARD BOUNDER'S SONG. 



There's many a ship with taller mast, 

There's many of squarer yard, 
There's many a one that sails as fast 

And many that roll as hard; 
With decks as white, with paint as bright, 

With hull as staunch and sound; 
But never ship that steers so light 

As the ship that's homeward bound! 

Then give her a spoke ^ and keep her west^ 
Hurrah^ for the world is round ! 

And here' s to the ship that steers the best — 
Hurrah for the homeward bound ! 

There's many a port in distant land 

And many a splendid sight, 
Where turret slim and palace grand 

Rise skyward tall and white; 

113 



""•"•w**^ 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL, 

Where castles rear, and far and near 
Shines many a golden dome; 

But never sight that's half so dear 
As the dear old port at home. 

Then give her a spoke^ and keep her west, 

Hurrah for a breeze astern ! 
And here' s to the port we love the best — 

The port where the twin-lights burn ! 

There's many a maid of fashion rare 

In warm and palmy lands, 
With sea-deep eyes and night-black hair 

And brown and shapely hands; 
With lips as red as ever led 

The heart of a man to roam. 
But never one we'd take instead 

Of the girl that waits at home. 

Then give her a spoke and keep her west, 

Hurrah for a wake of foam ! 
And here' s to the girl we love the best — 
The girl that we leave at home. 



114 



THE SPELL OF THE SEA. 



By the sea I sit and dream 

Of things that have passed, and now 
Are fading as fades the gleam 

Of sail on the ocean's brow, 
And I hear that song again 

She sang to the world before 
Men had crossed her glit'ring plain 

To die on the further shore. 

'Tis a song that, like the wind 

In a stormy counterpart, 
Rouses and rolls the restless mind. 

Till it breaks against the heart — 
Till it hurls its foam amain 

On the reefs which gird that lee — 
And the heart is swept again 

By that yearning for the sea. 

"5 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Ah, the sea it sings that song 

Whenever the moon is full — 
Whenever the wind is strong, 

And the tides are bountiful — 
And it throws a spell o'er one 

That my heart cannot withstand, 
So clearly do I foresee 

That I shall not die on land. 



ii6 



DAYS OF OAK. 



When ship met ship in olden days, 

With battle banners flaunting, 
From stem to stern the cannon's blaze 

A fiery challenge vaunting — 
Then man fought man, as brave men should. 

To keep those walls of native wood. 

11. 

When broadsides roaring swept the deck, 
And crews were madly cheering; 

W^hen sail and spar were shot to wreck, 
And ships were swiftly nearing; 

Then men faced death, as brave men should, 
Behind their walls of native wood. 



117 



TTTE 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

III. 

When face to face and hand to hand — 
When boarders' blades were flashing; 

When bloody pikes made desperate stand, 
And pistol balls were crashing — 

Then man fought man, as brave men should, 
To keep those walls of native wood. 

IV. 

When valiant arms prevailed at last, 

The foe for quarter crying. 
The dying seaman eyed the mast, 

And cheered his colors flying — 
For men met death, as brave men should, 

Behind their walls of native wood. 



ii8 



LONG, LONG AGO. 



As slow our boat the water thro' 

Is stealing on the breeze, 
The curving sky a tender blue, 

A deeper blue the seas; 

4 

We mark whereon the western edge 

A band of coast is seen. 
Where juts the cape and slopes the ledge, 

A port is shut between. 

On either side a sudden rise 

Of black and broken rock 
Thrusts out an arm that well defies 

The frantic ocean's shock; 
And from its point the sunken reef 

Runs out a mile or more. 
Where many a ship has come to grief 

When breaking breakers roar. 
119 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

Long, long ago, in sudden wrath 

A storm burst on this land; 
It caught a fleet within its path — 

An admiral in command. 
For three black days they fought the gale,. 

Then one by one they wore — 
And reft of spar and stripped of sail 

Went smashing on that shore. 

Where red and rough the land-slip beach 

Is touched by tiny waves — 
Beyond the winter breaker's reach 

They dug their shallow graves; 
And with a prayer that half expressed 

The sorrow that they knew, 
They laid the admiral there to rest 

Surrounded by his crew. 

But, ah, to-day is sweet — and lo, 

The ocean is at rest. 
Save for a breathing low and slow 

Of wind across its breast. 



1 20 



LONG, LONG AGO. 

Far out beyond the cloudy forms 
Are anchored on the edge — 

It is no time to talk of storms, 
Of wrecks upon the ledge. 



121 



WIND HAPPY SHIPS. 



Wind happy ships, that rise and make 

Across the gaping bay, 
To dance like bubbles in the wake 

Of westward flying day. 

So quick they rise, so swift they flow, 
So bright their topsails gleam, 

They seem to come, and come and go 
Like joy-thoughts in a dream. 

Wind happy ships, in constant flight 

Across the sloping main, 
That thro' the dark and thro' the light 

Sail on and on again. 

A port ye have, I know not where — 
'Tis far beyond my world — 

But pray some day may find you there 
With all your canvas furled. 



122 



1 J 



THE QUEST. 



My carrack rides the wave below, 

The castle glooms above — 
*' Now who will sail the sea with me, 

To find the man I love ? " 

Three pilots tall sit in the hall, 
And drink my father's ale — 

" Now one of three must go with me, 
This ship of mine to sail." 

Deep, deep they quaffed, and quaffing, 
Struck the board with tankard chine- 

*' Now in what port, to East or West, 
Dwells this true love of thine ? " 

** I seek no port to East or West, 

But down beyond the rim, 
By following far the falling star. 

My ship will come to him. 
123 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

" He rules a land of surfless shores, 

Of deep enchanted bays; 
Where time is twice as long again, 

And half the nights are days; 

"Where dreams are dreamt with open eyes; 

Where love forbears to change; 
And all that's new is old and sweet, 

And all that's old is strange." 

Loud, loud they laughed, and laughing, 
Blew the foam from bearded lips 

As blows the gale the whiter foam 
From the bows of plunging ships. 

Then up and spake the youngest one — 
And laughter seamed his cheek — 

'' There is no port beyond the rim, 
Such as the port you seek. 

"The sea is wide, and isles may hide 

Unknown to pilot's eye; 
But this, methink, Ues on the brink. 

When glows the ev'ning sky: 

124 



THE QUEST, 

'* A vapory shore that fades before 

The swift-advancing stars ; 
Where rides the moon on blue lagoon 

Embayed by golden bars." 

He ceased; and the boisterous laughter 

Rose rumbling thro' the hall. 
It swept like a gale among the mail, 
And the banners shook like shivered sail, 
As it rolled from wall to wall. 

Then up and spake the second one: 

" I fear not wind nor wave; 
But this soft clime of twice-long time 

Must lie beyond the grave. 

** No seaman's skill, no pilot's art, 

May find that port, I ween, 
For God alone doth read the chart 

Of that dark sea between. 

" And though I serve my Lord and King 
With head, and heart, and hand, 

I will not make, for woman's sake, 
A voyage to find that land ! " 

125 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL. 

They laughed, but they laughed less lightly, 
As though they felt their breath. 

And cheered the jest to free the breast 
From ugly thoughts of death. 

The maiden stepp'd three paces back, 

But nothing did she say — 
She turned her eyes upon the west, 
She signed the cross upon her breast, 

Then bent her knee to pray. 

Dear heart, but it was beautiful 

To hear that maiden's prayer! 
So strong of faith, so rich with love — 
It seem'd as though the sun above 

Slipp'd down to drink its share. 

And the saint on the window painted 
Looked down on her bended head, 

As a father who lingers watching 
Soft breathed above the dead — 

Looked down from the glowing casement, 
From the sun-lit crimson glass — 

126 



THE QUEST. 

Then followed a murmur of whispered prayer, 
And a silence descended unaware, 
Like the silence of the mass. 

Then up she rose like one refreshed, 

Who bendeth o'er a stream 
And drinketh deep, and in her eyes 
There shone the light that mocks the wise 

And maketh doubt a dream. 

Then up she rose as one refreshed 

And spake but once again: 
'* If you trust your heart above your art 

Our search will not be vain. " 

Then stood and spake the oldest one: 

" My eyes are true and keen, 
And I have sailed for four-score years 

Wherever ship hath been. 

" From East to West, from North to South, 

With every wind that blows, 
I know no land beyond the rim 

Where boundless bays repose; 

127 



SONGS OF SEA AND SAIL, 

" Where sleeps the sea along the strand 
Of sky-like slopes that wear 

So rich a light the very night 
Forgets to linger there. 

" It seems to me, if such there be, 

No man could pass it by; 
And I will make, for thy dear sake. 

This voyage before I die. 

" And if I fail that port to hail, 
God fend my soul. Oh, pray! 

The task I take for love's sweet sake 
May wash some sins away." 



128 



^i^,-^ OF 



V 



JU^ 



A. 






